- Location
- Somewhere, Maybe
Wasn't Lummox a space princess anyway? It's been -decades- since I read that book, but I distinctly remember the twist at the end, that the "beast" was actually considered a delicate and petite lady of her species?
Distance Learning for fun and profit...
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Wasn't Lummox a space princess anyway? It's been -decades- since I read that book, but I distinctly remember the twist at the end, that the "beast" was actually considered a delicate and petite lady of her species?
YuffieK
(Verified Ninja Princess)
Taylor has developed subspace energy taps.
She's drawing energy from the place that expands quantum foam into new universes.
Literally using the power of CREATION ITSELF....
May I suggest reading Isaac Asimov's 'The Last Question'.
She's drawing energy from the place that expands quantum foam into new universes.
Literally using the power of CREATION ITSELF....
May I suggest reading Isaac Asimov's 'The Last Question'.
Ding ding ding! We have a winner!
Yes, but Lummox was also much more able to understand humans than a shard of biocrystal.
M. H. Fuzzball
Aperture Science-certified Horrible Person
- Location
- Sector 2814
While DARPA probably didn't pay ten trillion dollars, their first offer was so big Taylor thought it should have been written in scientific notation, and all the high-end gear (that she didn't design and build herself) in her basement lab is basically a rounding error in comparison.
Well, once they got her excessive growth by bad diet plan resolved, yes.
Heh. The better part of that twist, in my opinion, was just who the real "Star Beast" was:
To the point where Lummox regarded the raising of "John Thomas" to be her hobby, which she's been indulging in for the last several centuries while living on Earth (her race having a lifespan apparently measuring in what I took to be millennia at the very least, they're about as easy to injure as Saurial from MP's Taylor Varga [attempts ranging from weapons to toxins and Lummox doesn't even notice they're trying to kill her], and she's explicitly called out as a very young member of the species). Her latest "John Thomas" is actually the eleventh of his name, and as he gets married just before Lummox heads home with both newlyweds accompanying her, viewing John Thomas and his antecedents and descendants the "Star Beasts" is just as valid as applying that title to Lummox, who is stated to be continuing her hobby of raising John Thomases.
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Correction: it shot off, straight up, at 2g. And continued doing so for an estimated 49 hours. On a couple of household batteries.
And she also handed over a full-spectrum optical cloaking device which can be reversed into a perfect mirror, along with a pile of other reverse-engineered Tinkertech. Like a structural integrity field.
Oh, and the superconductor is not merely good at room temperature and pressure, but at high temperature.
I figure some satellites will get launched into orbit, followed by more satellites because GRF makes doing so stupidly cheap. And as Ziz fails to react, and the months go on, people will get progressively bolder.
- Location
- emilia
Alright. I cannot believe I am doing this but thinking that it is commons sense was not doing my best. So henceforth anyone applying for the recent post vacated by General Brass has to pass this one question interview.
Question: What do you do with the golden goose?
Answer:
a: steal her feathers and eggs
b: Order her to give more eggs
c: Send her to boot camp to make her a proper soldier
d: Ensure that she has a healthy and comfortable life to continue to produce golden eggs or feathers
review per answer:
a: You are too shortsighted. We will review how you even manage to rise up the rank! And also investigate any reports of lost articles.
b: You are too military minded. We remand you to a mandatory course in interaction with civilians. We will also check that you do not sleep in your military uniforms or watch to many army movies.
c: You will make a great drill instructor. You are hereby instructed to report to fort___ as commanding officer for the training regiment.
d: This is the right answer. Prepare for additional interview with the science department.
edit: spelling, and missing word
Question: What do you do with the golden goose?
Answer:
a: steal her feathers and eggs
b: Order her to give more eggs
c: Send her to boot camp to make her a proper soldier
d: Ensure that she has a healthy and comfortable life to continue to produce golden eggs or feathers
review per answer:
a: You are too shortsighted. We will review how you even manage to rise up the rank! And also investigate any reports of lost articles.
b: You are too military minded. We remand you to a mandatory course in interaction with civilians. We will also check that you do not sleep in your military uniforms or watch to many army movies.
c: You will make a great drill instructor. You are hereby instructed to report to fort___ as commanding officer for the training regiment.
d: This is the right answer. Prepare for additional interview with the science department.
edit: spelling, and missing word
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YuffieK
(Verified Ninja Princess)
"What do we have here Brendan?"
"Something that we're considering using against her."
The others looked warily at the basketball-sized sphere on the workbench, "I thought this was one of those gravity reference frame devices?" someone said.
"It is. Most of it is solid tungsten carbide. We would have made it larger, but we were having issues with the projected performance if we did so, namely we'd have to worry about any potential backstops it could run into."
"I don't quite follow."
"This is capable of self propulsion at 2g acceleration for up to 48 hours. We can pretty much direct it anywhere we want. We can also have it provide a very short burst of extreme acceleration."
"How much are we talking about?"
"A little over 1 and a half million gees for about one second, enough to get it up to about 2.5 percent of lightspeed before everything burns out... we think."
"You THINK?"
"The computer simulations are sound, but we haven't practically tested it yet. This thing will hit with more than a megaton of TNT easily. It's not something we want to play around with."
"Why in God's Name would you come up with something like this?"
"One of the machinists said it best. 'Sir Isaac Newton would've been the deadliest son of a bitch in space.'"
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- Location
- Software
Not sure, I mean entity and common sense cannot be used together, IMVHO...
Another option for Angus is: "Shiny.new.invisible.flying.tanks"... so he uses
And about nuclear fusion, I suppose that with her knowledge of quantum physics and subspace she could probably jump directly into Zero Point Energy ( if its feasible, as the SG cross is still an omake, so not sure if it's official ).
If she does build a ZPE reactor or a battery, she single handedly jumped humanity from 0.1 Kardashev to 2 (or more, that thing is insanely powerful).
Great job, kid, I suppose
Not sure, I mean entity and common sense cannot be used together, IMVHO...
Another option for Angus is: "Shiny.new.invisible.flying.tanks"... so he usesBlowharderr General Brass language...
And about nuclear fusion, I suppose that with her knowledge of quantum physics and subspace she could probably jump directly into Zero Point Energy ( if its feasible, as the SG cross is still an omake, so not sure if it's official ).
If she does build a ZPE reactor or a battery, she single handedly jumped humanity from 0.1 Kardashev to 2 (or more, that thing is insanely powerful).
Great job, kid, I suppose
...she's already created power taps that draw from the quantum foam that underlies reality, which she ALSO mentioned was effectively infinite energy.
- Location
- Software
My bad, I probably forgot about that part, between the levitation tech and the quantum computing!
My bad, I probably forgot about that part, between the levitation tech and the quantum computing!
'it's not been called out as a separate invention, but the sub space power tap is what's powering things like levitating oil tankers. As Taylor mentions, two C batteries are not enough for two days of 2g acceleration.
- Location
- Maryland
This. In fact, the potential for some type of data processing breakthrough that significantly increases computing power is why I'm inherently skeptical of security that only relies on encryption. It also makes me skeptical of technologies like block chain (and by association, crypto-currencies and their cult-like bubble and associated consumption of resources for mining; any "investment" that monetizes an inevitably temporary scarcity is suspect in my book).
The good news is that even if encryption becomes much less secure, that doesn't mean everything would fall apart. It would still be viable for casual security, as it would require at least a minimal effort for somebody to break. I mean, security cams in a 7-11 don't exactly prevent theft so much as keep it manageable.
cryptoam
building an 1980s encrypted protocol
- Location
- in lockdown waiting and bored...
What?
I don't think that 256 bit symmetric crypto will break anytime soon. 128 bits(classical computational brute force equivalent) is at risk from quantum computing thanks to the universal speed up that Grover's algorithm can provide but all that does to 256 bit encryption(classical computational brute force equivalent) is down grade it to 128 bits of difficulty after applying the quantum speed up. That is still effectively impossible for quantum computing to attack. Baring an sudden cryptoanalytic attack that kills AES and every other cipher(which would be a major revolution in cryptography), nothing is killing symmetric cryptography.Bruce Schneier said:
Just one problem here. Symmetric crypto is only effective when both side shares the same secret(key). What if you don't have that?
That is where asymmetric cryptography comes in. With asymmetric cryptography, one can given a couple easier assumptions create secret and secure key that allows them to use symmetric encryption(asymmetric encryption is fairly bulky). The issue here is that current and in story the current asymmetric cryptography used is vulnerable to quantum computing(eg Shor's algorithm). This compromises the secrecy and security of the protected symmetric key, bypassing it's security guarantees.
Now in the story, this is what has happened. Taylor's computational cube has effectively jumped her setting straight into the PQ era without any PQ asymmetric crypto to drop in as replacement. Meanwhile IRL, there has been a great deal of effort by NIST and others in the field to find and vet PQ asymmetric crypto in anticipation of this problem.
So, if cryptography is secure so far then why are there issues? Simple:
- Outdated and known vulnerabilities/legacy protocols
- Implementation error(failure to validate all necessary components, timing leaks, Heartbleed style leaks, etc.)
- Unvetted system(tried to use a composition that is known to be bad, see cryptographic doom principle)
- Just bypass(No need to crack the password or ssh private key of a server if you can do a SQL injection to bypass the authentication)
YuffieK
(Verified Ninja Princess)
Id say that's a tad extreme, but it's Queen Admin we're talking about here. I'd go the Elsa Bloodstone and Jeff route
As I understand it, Bitcoin scarcity, at least, is not temporary; there is a limit to the final number of bitcoins that will ever be produced.
You forgot one: The NSA has deliberately snuck in vulnerabilities to at least one crypto method that we know of. How many more compromised methods are out there?
Pretty sure the problem isn't so much "I mined infinity-billion bitcoins last night", but rather "I just unilaterally transferred all the bitcoins to my wallet".
- Location
- Maryland
You're making assumptions about the future state of both processing technology and the algorithms used to break encryptions. I don't claim to be an expert in encryption, but I'm also not talking about vulnerability in the "next six months," necessarily. The foundation of cryptographic security is the scarcity of clock cycles necessary to brute force a key. Clock cycles translates into expected time to crack, which provides high-probability security. That scarcity is inevitably a temporary thing, however, and the time frame for the emergence of disruptive technology innovation is pretty much impossible to accurately predict.
Feel free to be skeptical of the likelihood of that happening. It's really just my opinion. It's quite possible that improved standards and longer keys will continue to make cryptographic security useful for decades. That doesn't mean that it is inherently secure. Encryption, by itself, is not a compete solution for information security. That is why I don't like block chain. The lack of a central authority is supposed to be part of the appeal, but it puts the heaviest burden for security on the inherent security of the method.
- Location
- Earth
So, finally caught up. A very fun ride as pretty much all of your stories are mpπplayer. I really like how Taylor is solving problems in the background, though I really do think she needs to get word to someone in the PRT, or to Dragon, about how the Endbringers are no longer a threat. I'm not sure how she would do so without giving away her connection with Admin and that whole thing but she's a smart girl, she could work it out. I just feel that that particular bit of information is best shared sooner than others, which are fine being kept a secret from everyone.
I did find a small repeated error:
Technically "coke" should probably also be capitalized but at this point it has become sufficiently generic that you get some people who use the word "coke" to refer to any drink they have, be it Pepsi, lemonade, sweet tea, or even water.
The NSA man scene was good. Nice seeing Brendan get his chance to be the one making people twitch.
Also always enjoy seeing Carol get some comeuppance as well.
Thanks for the chapter.
I want a SpiceBottles account. I've got some interesting ideas on what you can do with cumin...
I did find a small repeated error:
As a brand name Oreo should be capitalized both times it is used. The example I remember from my writing tips is "Does your character reach for a Kleenex or do they go for a tissue?".
Technically "coke" should probably also be capitalized but at this point it has become sufficiently generic that you get some people who use the word "coke" to refer to any drink they have, be it Pepsi, lemonade, sweet tea, or even water.
The NSA man scene was good. Nice seeing Brendan get his chance to be the one making people twitch.
Also always enjoy seeing Carol get some comeuppance as well.
Thanks for the chapter.
I want a SpiceBottles account. I've got some interesting ideas on what you can do with cumin...
Some people? There are entire parts of the country that do this.
Still technically correct, in that "Entire parts of the country" is just a much larger sum than would be anticipated/assumed when using the phrase "some people."
*GROANS* THAT WAS BAD AND YOU SHOULD FEEL BAD FOR SAYING IT...
- Location
- Earth
I was fully aware I was somewhat understating things, but as @Avniel said was mostly just using a smaller example size that proves the point I was trying to make without being more than what was needed.
Edit: I hadn't intended to actually reply to the post but... .
It seems Chrome automatically translates Wingdings, as I copied them to translate them I found it already done for me when I pasted. I can't even get the Wingdings proper via any sort of copy-paste without running the copied text through another translator.
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Dings actually enjoys that little fact. Now all those people who want to understand him can just by highlighting his text and copying it. (or use mobile, that does so automatically) Additionally, if you want to use Wingdings for yourself, just use this
Code:
[FONT=Wingdings](Your text here)[/FONT]MY FAVORITE PART OF THIS WEBSITE! I ALSO FIGURED OUT HOW TOKEEP MYSELF FROM GOING TRANSPARENT RANDOMLY. WHICH IS A GREAT RELIEF.
- Location
- Maryland
The scarcity I refer to is not the limited number of financial sodokus mining can uncover. It is the scarcity of computing clock cycles that forms the primary foundation for block chain technology security. If I can effectively perform infinite calculation for free, then the entire premise of block chain currencies collapses. Anybody who could do that could corrupt the integrity of the distributed ledger. If I give you a gold brick that has a spell cast on it that forces the owner to leave it out on the sidewalk overnight where anyone can take it, then that brick is effectively worthless.
Now, of course I cannot perform infinite calculation for free. There is a time cost, and I am not a math savant, so there is a hardware cost. That can change. Companies like Oracle and SAP sell software that replaces the labor of entire rooms full of accounting clerks with mechanical adding machines. The inventions of first the transistor and then the microprocessor made that both feasible and inevitable. Since then, we've been coasting along with Moore's Law and treating it as a constant, when it is in fact only constant for as long as the technology base used for information processing remains relatively constant with only incremental advances over time.
What does science fiction tell us about the future of information technology? Some boffin somewhere is going to invent cheap and practical quantum processing, or optical processors, or some other cheat with a made-up name like "positronics," or a cybernetic brain, or some such thing. It will be impossible to predict exactly when this will happen, as the actual event will be proceeded by the usual media noise where tech reporters blather on about concepts they barely understand in the hope that it will be the next big thing. Alternatively, some genius will invent a really, impossibly clever algorithm that somehow shortcuts all the math involved in decrypting a bit of data while under the influence of absinthe.